Female Artists Represent Just 2% of the Market*
Many female artists work all their lives without financial gain or receiving the recognition they deserve.
(*Article on Art Net by: Julia Halperin & Charlotte Burns September 19, 2019)
SOLA: (Support Old Lady Artists) is a non-profit organization, founded by local artist Ginny Ruffner in 2016, to acknowledge and financially reward older female artist in Washington State.
Audience:
The solution needed to speak to an audience of artists, curators, donors, and the general public.
Goal:
SOLA needed a way to showcase older women artists, (SOLA Award Recipients) and bring awareness to their organization for fundraising purposes.
Role: Art Director, Interviewer
Collaborators: Daniel Bui, Videographer, Editor, Producer
In 2017 the first SOLA Award went to:
Gloria Bornstein
(1937-2024)
“Having a video about my work would be amazing because it’s not something I would do for myself.”
Gloria Bornstein, Believeish, Tapestries, wool and linen: 9 x 18 inches. 2017
Gloria Bornstein’s performance art, artist books, sculpture, installations, and public art are the hidden voices or counter-narratives she seeks to make heard. She calls her art visual poetry, where textual and visual elements are interwoven.
Gloria Bornstein’s best known piece, Neototem, at the Seattle Center
Video
Gloria Bornstein’s talks about her current work, what it meant to her to receive the SOLA award and why it’s important that art can waste time. We created a short (0.55 min.) and a longer version (5:15 min).
Gloria Bornstein is the 2017 SOLA Award Recipient.
“...this is the right arch for honoring someone that is being held up by an informed community of artists and folks that judge for SOLA”
Impact
The video is going to live on SOLA’s and Gloria Bornstein’s website and is going to the Smithsonian as part of Ginny Ruffner’s (Founder of SOLA) legacy.
SOLA Award Ceremony 2018
It’s important for SOLA to show their donors that they are helping to make a difference in the award recipients’ lives.
SOLA has an immense network of people in the art world, including curators, institutions, and access to archives across the nation. By sharing the videos with their network they can create interest in the new work the artists are creating.
“These women have incredibly compelling stories and telling them brings awareness to SOLA as an organization”.
2017 Bornstein
Feedback:
“Bravo.. Beautiful pacing, stunning beginning/end alluding to elliptical time, artwork flows with the story. I love it ”
“FABULOUS!!!!!!! BEYOND MY WILDEST HOPES. You did a great job.”
In Memorandum:
“Time is of the essence, and yet it’s not”
Gloria Bornstein 1937-2024
Ginny Ruffner
1952 - 2025
Founder of SOLA, everything is possible if you don’t take no for an answer. Thanks, Ginny!
2017 Bornstein, Tapestries, wool and linen: 9 x 27 inches. 2017